Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
In one nation, at least two dozen mostly Catholic and some Anglican churches have been vandalized or torched in recent weeks; and that nation’s leaders are either openly calling for more or shrugging their shoulders.
That nation is not Iraq, Syria, or Libya under ISIS, but rather Canada.
According to one recent report titled “Canada has become the church-burning centre of the western world,”
As of publication [July 2], there have been almost 23 attacks against churches—including at least five completely destroyed by fires, at least three damaged by fires, and more than 15 vandalized to varying degrees.
Two days after that report was published, on Sunday, July 4, another church was set on fire in southeast Calgary, and “countless have been vandalized,” says a July 6 report. After characterizing these ongoing attacks as a “shocking and unchallenged new reality” for Canada, the report adds:
There are currently no suspects for these arsons, but even more alarming, there is seemingly very little sympathy or care given to this vicious form of religious persecution.
Indeed, consider the reaction to these hate crimes coming from some of Canada’s leaders: Harsha Walia, the head of British Colombia’s Civil Liberties Association—which claims to “promote, defend, sustain, and extend civil liberties and human rights”—on June 30 tweeted, “Burn it all down,” in regards to the churches. So much for her zealous defense for the “civil liberties and human rights” of Canadians; apparently they only apply to some people, not others.
Although she appears to be a Hindu, this Walia’s place of birth (Bahrain) and her last name are curiously Islamic—not, of course, that it matters: India has become so anti-Christianity that it is currently the 10th worst persecutor of Christians in the entire world; being a Christian in India is actually worse than being a Christian in most Muslim nations—which is saying much.
If Muslims and Hindus hate Christians and attack their churches, Western elements—the media, politicians, and academia—increasingly sympathize and cover for them.
Thus, according to Gerald Butts, a close confidant of the Canadian prime minister, attacks on churches are “understandable.” Even more bizarre, Heidi Mathews of Harvard Law School described the vandalization and torching of churches as “the right of resistance to extreme and systemic injustice.”
As for the Prime Minister himself, Justin Trudeau, after offering the usual lip service and saying that ongoing church attacks are “unacceptable,” he offered this:
I understand the anger that’s out there … against institutions like the Catholic Church. It is real, and it is fully understandable given the shameful history that we’re all becoming more and more aware of.
So attacks on Christian churches are “unacceptable”—but they’re also “understandable.” Considering that these two words neutralize each other, Trudeau’s is a call for no action.
Tucker Carlson discussed all this in a segment yesterday, July 7. After quoting Harsha Walia—whom he referred to as “a monster” and a “dangerous lunatic”—he asked Canadian media personality Ezra Levant of Rebel News to comment. Levant referenced Kristallnacht—“the ‘Night of the Broken Glass’ in pre-Holocaust Germany where they smashed and burned and killed Jewish synagogues”—before continuing:
Obviously, we are not that far gone yet, but what do you call it when literally dozens of churches are being systematically vandalized, torched?… The crazy thing is that this is so explicitly an anti-church hate crime wave, and yet Justin Trudeau, who is normally the first and the wokest, waited a week before saying anything, and he literally said ‘that’s not the way to go.’ That was as tough as he got. He introduced an anti-hate crime bill in parliament that’s targeting mean tweets and Facebook posts, but literally you have church after church being torched by Antifa-style terrorists and he’s almost silent on the matter, and his right hand man [Gerald Butts] finds it understandable.
And so, what was once the preserve of the Islamic world in recent decades—hate for and attacks on churches—is now a regular and acceptable feature of Canada. Considering that radical Leftists and radical Muslims believe in the exact opposite things, rather tellingly, when it comes to torching churches, they are close allies. This speaks volumes about what truly animates them, and what is at the core of their belief systems.
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